Women of God Hagar-El Roi When Hagar fled, the Lord met her. He saw her pain, he comforted her, and encouraged her. He told her what to next. And Hagar named him: El Roi אֵל רֳאִי, “the God who sees”. Hagar is the first and only person in the entire Bible to give a name to the Lord. All other names are revealed by God himself. Yet she is a woman, a slave, a foreigner, in rebellion and a runaway. No one is invisible to the Lord God in their distress. You are not invisible to the Lord God in your distress. El Roi! I could sing it all day long! Lord God, how you love us. Not one of us is invisible to you. You search out and save the lost sheep. You fed Elijah in his sorrow and let him rest. You walk with each of us all the days of our lives- if only we had eyes to see it! And when the time is right you will comfort and deliver us from evil. Open the eyes of the world to see you and to seek you, as you do for us. Praises be to El Roi! The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.” …She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭7‬-‭11‬, ‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬ we

Women of God Hagar-Mistreated Hagar is a story for mistreated people everywhere. She was the slave of Sarah, given to Abraham as a wife to bear him a son and likely given little choice. When inevitable conflict arose between Sarah and Hagar over her pregnancy (could this ever have gone well?), Abraham all but abandons Hagar. Sarah mistreats her and Hagar flees into the desert while pregnant. How badly does a pregnant woman have to be mistreated to flee into the desert? Perhaps she fled and longed to die. Lord God, in this story we are about to learn how much you love all people; the enslaved, the abused, the lost, the hopeless. When you say you are close to the brokenhearted, you do not say it lightly. Give me the same heart for all those who suffer. Give me grace, compassion and love. Clothe your church in grace, compassion and love. Help us shine your gospel glory in every land and every dark corner. In my own life, give me endless hope in you and save me from cords of embitterment that seek to bind my joy. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭3‬-‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Here is Today's Message Genesis 21:17-18 A Great Nation NKJV Genesis 21:17-18 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. "Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation." Genesis 16:7-15 Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, "Hagar, Sara's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." And the Angel of the LORD said to her; "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?" Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi, observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

Daily pearls from the shore 🫧 Waiting Rooms If there were ever a list of the longest waiting, my name would probably be at the top of it. I remember my college days when my friend and I used to travel from our hometown to our college in another city about an hour and a half away. We did this daily for the first year or so. Every morning, I would reach the bus stop around 6:15 AM and wait. And I would wait. And wait and wait and wait and then I would eventually call her home landline to enquire how far she was, only to discover she was still sleeping! Funny, Isn’t it? It may be hard to believe, but this happened almost every single day. And it was so hard to wait, as the people would start staring at me, while I stood there the whole time, as there was no place to sit, and no waiting room. So, if anybody understands waiting and the patience for it, I might still have the best of chances of topping that list. WAS IT EASY? NOOOOOOO. How did I feel? At that time, I still had a lot more patience, but was t pleasant? NOT AT ALL. Did I want to wait? NO WAY. But waiting comes for all kinds of things in life. It’s easy to wait for a courier these days because we know the date and time. Then, there are things in life for which we wait with no timeline. And what do we do during that waiting period, especially when we don’t have a timeline? There was a Prophet named Elijah who lived in a land that had been under drought for years. He told the king that it would rain. Thereafter, he waited. “Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. ‘Go and look toward the sea,’ he told his servant. And he went up and looked. ‘There is nothing there,’ he said. Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.’” (1 Kings 18: 42-43) There were no clouds, and he had no timeline for when there would be any. Still, what did Elijah do here? He waited. On his knees. Was he grumbling? No. Did his faith waver? No. Did he doubt? No. How do we know? He didn’t have time for all of that. He was busy worshipping. In faith, he declared that God will send rain. In the meantime, He worshipped God. He waited and hoped. Seven times he sent his servant to check for any sign of rain, while he himself remained on his knees. HE DIDN’T CHANGE HIS POSTURE. “In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and WAIT EXPECTANTLY.” (Psalms 5: 3) Like the psalmist, Elijah believed that the Lord had heard his voice and would grant his request. And He waited EXPECTANTLY, IN HOPE. It seems easier said than done. Waiting is easy when we know the timeline. But sometimes, we don’t know the date of delivery of a promise. In those times, we tend to get up and start fixing the situation ourselves, and end up birthing Ishmaels. “But they soon forgot what He (GOD) had done and DID NOT WAIT for His plan to unfold.” (Psalms 106: 11-13) God promised Abram a child, but there was no timeline, and after waiting for several years, he and his wife, Sarai, devised a plan and had a baby with a slave girl, naming him Ishmael. Did God not bless Abram with the promised child? He did. Isaac was born. (Genesis 16:1-16) It might be easy to believe a promise, but difficult to wait for it to materialise. Elijah didn’t make plans to beat drums and summon rain just because six times there were no clouds. He worshipped. Abram and Sarai, on the other hand, started with hopeful waiting for the promise, but gave up soon and made their own plan to fix the delay. See, it matters what we choose to do in the waiting rooms. We see all kinds of people in the waiting rooms - some people sleep, some read books, some kids play, and some people start walking up and down impatiently. Does impatience change anything? NOTHING. Does worship change anything? EVERYTHING! “I remain CONFIDENT of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. WAIT FOR THE LORD; be strong and take heart, and wait for the LORD.” (Psalms 27: 13-14) When we wait and wait expectantly, we hope in confidence. And hope strengthens us to wait more expectantly. WAITING IS ANOTHER POSTURE OF A DEEPER LEVEL OF TRUST. "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40: 31) CONVERT WAITING ROOMS INTO WORSHIP HALLS, And witness the goodness of the lord. And yes, the seventh time, the servant of Prophet Elijah did see a cloud. AND YES, IT RAINED LIKE ANYTHING. “The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So, Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, A HEAVY RAIN STARTED FALLING, and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the LORD came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.” (1 Kings 18: 44-45). #MonsoonVibes #WorshipPower #mentalhealthandwait #psycholgybehindwait #ChristianCounselingResources

HIDDEN TENDENCIES OF THE HUMAN HEART By Alfred Wabuko Another important lesson from Genesis 16 is that the human heart is deceitful, and only God truly knows and understands it. Hagar appeared submissive while she was merely a servant. However, after she conceived and possessed what her mistress Sarai did not have, her attitude changed, revealing what had been hidden in her heart all along. This serves as a mirror for all of us. At times, we may think we are humble simply because we have not yet been entrusted with influence, wealth, authority, or success. But if God were to elevate us today above our friends, colleagues, or even our own family members, would we still remain humble? Would we continue serving the Lord with the same sincerity? Therefore, one of our daily prayers should be that God would search, purify, and transform our hearts. We should ask Him to remove every seed of pride, selfish ambition, greed, jealousy, and every hidden motive that does not glorify Him. Scripture gives us several examples. In 2 Kings 8, when Hazael was sent by King Ben-Hadad to inquire of the prophet Elisha concerning the king's illness, Elisha began to weep. When Hazael asked why, the prophet revealed that God had shown him that Hazael would become king and would inflict great suffering upon Israel. Hazael could hardly believe it, yet everything came to pass exactly as the prophet had foretold. Likewise, Peter confidently declared that he would never deny Jesus. Yet, when the moment of testing came, he denied Him three times before the rooster crowed (Matthew 26:69–75). These examples remind us that there are hidden tendencies within the human heart that only God fully knows. Unless we continually surrender ourselves to Him, those weaknesses may become the cause of our downfall. For some, the hidden struggle may be immorality; for others, greed, pride, bitterness, jealousy, or cruelty. The prophet Jeremiah declared: " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Even we do not fully understand our own hearts. That is why our prayer should continually echo David's words in Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Sometimes we have not fallen simply because the opportunity has not presented itself. When it does, what is hidden in the heart is revealed. Therefore, our confidence should never be in ourselves but in God's sustaining grace. May this always be our prayer: "Lord, help someone. Hold someone. Strengthen someone. Preserve someone—and let that someone be me."

#DAILY LIGHT AXE DOWN THE THOUGHT FOR AN AUXILIARY: LEARN FROM SARAH’S HAGAR! 🚨 ​Grace, peace, and the uncompromising, purifying fire of the Holy Ghost to the Saints, the promise-carriers, and the true disciples of Jesus Christ! ​Today, the Spirit of God is bringing a sharp, apostolic axe to the root of a deadly epidemic in the Body of Christ. It is the epidemic of the "Backup Plan." We have a generation of believers who trust God enough to give Him their souls, but do not trust Him enough to give Him their timelines. When God's prophetic promise is delayed, we panic and introduce a fleshly substitute. ​We must violently confront the spirit of the Plan B. We must axe down the thought for an auxiliary! ​Let us open the surgical book of the Spirit and expose the tragedy of trying to "help" God. ​The Seduction of the Auxiliary (Genesis 16:1-2) ​God gave Abraham and Sarah an ironclad, covenant promise: They would have a son, and from that son, nations would be born. But years passed. The prophetic word seemed to be expiring, and Sarah’s womb remained dead. ​In the agony of the waiting room, human logic crept in to do the job of the Holy Ghost. ​"Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, 'See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.' And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai." — Genesis 16:1-2 (NKJV) ​Look at the terrifying anatomy of this compromise: ​Blaming God for the Delay: Sarah said, "The Lord has restrained me." When you grow impatient, your flesh will twist God's sovereign timing into an accusation against His character. ​The Egyptian Solution: Hagar was an Egyptian—a product of the world system. When you get tired of waiting for heaven's intervention, you will reach back into the "Egypt" you were delivered from to manufacture a carnal solution. ​The Birth of the Auxiliary: Abram listened to the voice of compromise instead of the voice of Covenant. He slept with Hagar, and Ishmael was born. ​The Tragedy of Ishmael: Why You Must Axe the Backup Plan ​Beloved, hear me by the Spirit of God: God does not need your flesh to fulfill His prophecy! ​When you create an auxiliary plan—when you manipulate a business deal because the finances are tight, when you date an unbeliever because you are tired of waiting for a godly spouse, when you use worldly marketing tactics to build your ministry—you are giving birth to an Ishmael! ​Here is the spiritual law of the auxiliary: ​Ishmael is Always Born Faster Than Isaac: The flesh can produce overnight success, but the Spirit demands a gestation period of faith. Just because your backup plan is "working" and producing quick results does not mean God is breathing on it! ​Your Ishmael Will Mock Your Isaac: Years later, when the true promise (Isaac) was finally born, what happened? "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian... scoffing [mocking]" (Genesis 21:9). The carnal thing you create in your impatience will eventually wage war against the divine destiny God is trying to birth in you! ​The Prophetic Command: Cast Out the Bondwoman! ​You cannot keep Hagar and Sarah in the same house. You cannot hold onto your fleshly backup plan while asking God to bless your divine promise! ​The Apostle Paul looked back at this event and gave us the apostolic mandate: ​"Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? 'Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.'" — Galatians 4:30 (NKJV) ​You must take an axe to your auxiliary plan! Cut ties with the compromised relationship. Shut down the manipulative business strategy. Resign from the ungodly alliance. Stop trying to engineer a miracle that only God can orchestrate. It is better to stand completely empty-handed in the will of God than to hold a counterfeit blessing manufactured by the flesh! A Prayer to Axe Down the Flesh and Surrender the Timeline 🙏 ​"Lord God Almighty, the Keeper of the Covenant, I fall on my face in absolute repentance. I confess that I have grown impatient in the waiting room. I repent for the times I have relied on my own intellect, my own strength, and the systems of 'Egypt' to bring Your promises to pass. Forgive me for creating Ishmaels! Today, I take the axe of the Holy Ghost to every fleshly backup plan, every auxiliary thought, and every carnal alternative in my life. I cast out the bondwoman! I surrender my timeline completely to You. I choose the agony of waiting for Isaac over the instant gratification of Ishmael. Strip me of my self-reliance and give me the grace to trust Your perfect, sovereign timing. In the mighty, uncompromising name of Jesus Christ, Amen!" ​If the Holy Ghost just exposed the "Hagar" in your life, and you are violently taking an axe to your backup plan today to wait on God, type "AMEN" in the comments right now as a public seal of your total surrender! 🔥 #THE SON OF LIGHT

Women of God Sarah- Women of God In Genesis 17, the Lord promised again to make Abraham the father of many nations and to bless him with descendants. He made a covenant with Abraham including Sarah in the terms of the covenant. He commanded Abraham to call her by a new name. Sarai was now to be called Sarah. While possible meanings of Sarai שָׂרָי are “my princess” or “my lady”, Sarah שָׂרָה almost certainly means “princess”, the feminine of Sar שַׂר or “prince, ruler, cheiftan, military leader”. In a messianic foreshadowing, Sarah and Abraham would become the parents of nations to whom kings of nations would come to. And why will these kings come? To worship the Lord our God (Psalms 2:10-12, 72:10-11, 102:15, 138:4-5, Isaiah 47:7, 60:3,6&11, Daniel 7:14). The Lord’s promise and covenant was for both Abraham and Sarah. God was about to start his plan of reconciliation for the world through both Abraham and Sarah. Heavenly Father, I praise you that you blessed both Abraham and Sarah in your ministry of reconciliation. Sarah was not an insignificant side character. None of us are! You have a plan for each and everyone to come into your grace and worship. And you have a plan for all of us to be a part of your ministry of reconciliation. Give us more and more faith in you! Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you….” God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭17‬:‭3‬-‭6‬, ‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Women of God Sarah- Wounded Faith Every family makes mistakes. In a scene that should horrify all of us, Sarah gave over her slave Hagar to Abraham to bear a child on her behalf. It is unlikely a Hagar as slave woman would have had any genuine choice in becoming Abraham’s second wife. And this was despite Abraham having already been told twice by the Lord, that he will be the father of a great nation. Time was ticking and Sarah and Abraham were surely starting to doubt the promises. At Sarah’s prompting they took God’s promises into their own hands. Forcing the hand of God into fulfilling prophecy on our own terms is wounded and dangerous faith. It was then and it is now. It was a decision that had great consequences for the family of Abraham. A bitter root that never really healed grew up between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar’s descendants would ultimately become enemies of Sarah’s. Sarah blamed Abraham. So Abraham gave Sarah permission to mistreat her slave Hagar. And as a result Hagar fled into the desert and would surely have died if the Lord had not intervened saved her. Lord God, your promises endure forever. Let me stand on your promises faithfully and patiently, knowing the you hold all time and purposes in your hands. Let me not be like the Israelites in the desert who dared to enter the promised land early against the command of you. Let me put every decision and thought before you in prayer so that it may be tested and I might walk in your will. Teach us as your church to do the same, Because the days are evil and the enemy would seek to deceive us! Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Women of God Sarah- Introducing Sarai What do we know about Sarah, the wife of Abram? She was beautiful (Genesis 12:11). She was seemingly unable to bear children (Genesis 11:30). Sarai live a nomadic life in tents. She and Abram came from Ur of the Chaldeans (Genesis 11:31). They settled in Haran for a while. She and Abram then travelled to Canaan at the command of the Lord (Genesis 12:1). When the Lord God blessed Abram and promised to make into a great nation, Sarai was also chosen to be the intended mother. Her later attempts to fulfil that promise to Abram through another woman went terribly wrong. But God blessed her anyway. And Sarai will be forever remembered as Sarah. Lord God, through Abraham and Sarah we learn how much you truly love us. Through their faith and through their mistakes we learn that your promises never fail. You have a plan for each and every one of us. You blessed the nations through the offspring of this couple, for in our Lord Jesus Christ our sins are forever forgiven. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭11‬:‭27‬-‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Daily devotion for June 10th It All Depends On Me So [Sarai] said to Abram, The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her. Genesis 16:2a Sarai's difficulty was simply that all of her actions grew out of a basic philosophy, which, put very simply, says: God has told me what He wants; now the rest of it depends on me. This is the philosophy that led to all the heartache and sorrow that Abram and Sarai experienced. You will recognize that this is a very common and widespread philosophy. We continually think and act this way in the church today. We say the reason God's work is not going forward as it should is that we are not trying hard enough. The barrenness in our experience is due to the fact we have not really put ourselves into this. Let us hold some more committee meetings and get going. It all depends on us. We find in our Bibles what we call the Great Commission: Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation (Mark 16:15b). This is the goal God wants us to fulfill, we say; now the rest is up to us. We must plan all the strategy, raise the money and determine where it will be spent, and convince candidates that they should go. We hear our Lord say in the first chapter of Acts, You will be my witnesses (Acts 1: 8b), and every truly Christian heart says, All right, Lord, this is what you want me to do—I will do it. We never bother to find out how He wants it done or whether He has a program to carry it out. We start out in fleshly zeal and pass out tracts to everyone we meet or corner people at meetings. When it all fails, we recognize that something is wrong, and we wring our hands and quit. Perhaps the worst thing of all, and certainly the matter before us in the story of Abram and Sarai, is that in reading Scripture, we learn we are supposed to be conformed to the image of Christ—so we set out to start trying to be like Jesus. We make up a list of rigid rules for acceptable behavior. We work our fingers to the bone and spend hour after hour in church neglecting our family, our own life, and everything else in order to do things for the Lord. We note how the community around approves our strenuous efforts and pats us on the back for our faithful spirit. But despite all the effort and sincerity, deep in our hearts we know there is nothing but barrenness. Or, if there is fruit, it is not the kind we wanted. It is forced and unnatural, sustained only by continual effort. This was what happened to Sarai. Note the sacrifice, the seemliness, and the appearance of selflessness. The result is fruit all right, but it is Ishmael, not Isaac—the fruit of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. In some moment of illumination we ask, Why are we so barren? Where is the impact, the power? What has become of that living vitality we see in the early Christians? It is all a result of failing to learn God's way as well as His will. Father, how many mistakes I have made by doing this very thing that I have seen Sarai do. Lead me to the place where I recognize the folly of my flesh and the impossibility of pleasing You in its strength